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(Melina Myers-USA TODAY Sports)
Height: 6’4 1/8″ (99th) Weight: 220 (92nd)
40-Yard Dash: 4.59 seconds (93rd)
10-Yard Split: 1.58 seconds (97th)
Bench Press: N/A
Vertical Jump: 38 inches (81st)
Broad Jump: 131 inches (93nd)
3-Cone Drill: 6.9 seconds (70th)
20-Yard Shuttle: 4.32 seconds (24th)
Wingspan: 79 3/4 inches (94th)
Arm Length: 33inches (90th)
Hand Size: 9 1/8 inches (34th)
Bio: A four-star recruit out of the Marist School in Atlanta, Hamilton was born on the Greek Island of Crete and spent time in Russia when his father played basketball there before moving to Atlanta as a small child. He was a basketball and football player who played quarterback through middle school until an injury had him moving away from the position — and the formation. He was a star at safety and receiver in high school, and chose Notre Dame over just about every major program in the country because of its academics. A three-year player and two-year starter for the Fighting Irish, Hamilton played all over the place in Notre Dame’s defense, tallying 313 snaps in the box, 437 in the slot, 644 at free safety, 29 at the defensive line, and 15 at cornerback. He made First Team All-American in 2021 (his second straight season doing so) and led the defense in interceptions with three despite missing the last six games of the season with a knee injury.
Stat to Know: Over those three seasons with the Fighting Irish, Hamilton allowed 39 receptions on 82 targets for 388 yards, 149 yards after the catch, one touchdown, eight interceptions, 14 pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 25.9.
Strengths: Hamilton can work the entire field as a match defender because his transition skills are top-notch. He’ll use his hands to establish the landmark, and run the route right with the receiver — no matter where it goes. This interception against Florida State is a master class.
Here’s his second interception against Florida State, and this is the first example of many where Hamilton’s insane ability to work from one side of the field to the other in a very short times shows up as a major asset. He starts the play on the defensive right seam, and somehow not only gets to the left boundary, but has the wherewithal to make the pick. There are not many safeties in the NFL who can pull this off; Devin McCourty at his best has plays like these — and Devin McCourty is 5-foot-10, 195 pounds. Guys this big and rangy are not supposed to have movement skills like these.
And when Hamilton closes down on a receiver, he arrives with violent intentions. Said receiver had best have his head on a swivel.
Hamilton didn’t blitz a lot for Notre Dame, but if I’m on his NFL coaching staff, I’m thinking about his size, aggression, and closing speed, and I want him on that wall. Wisconsin’s quarterback would probably agree.
You will hear that Hamilton has issues covering in the slot, and in man coverage underneath, but… I dunno, you guys — this rep against Cincinnati looks pretty good to me. When you can have a safety who trails motion and goes to the boundary downfield like this, I think it’s a plus.
This was a 31-yard run for Purdue’s King Doerue, but watch how Hamilton careens over to stop it from becoming a house call by outrunning everybody on the field. All that closing speed you see in coverage is just as evident when he’s playing the run.
Weaknesses: Hamilton’s height leads to iffy transition skills at times, and while he can play the deep third as a single defender, it’s not his optimal spot — unless he’s turning and running to react. He’s not the ideal defender against quicker, more angular receivers downfield. On this play against USC, Hamilton’s backpedal out of single-high is decent enough, but he doesn’t transition as quickly as he would if he was coming down to the receiver. Drake London gets a 29-yard catch as a result.
I think that Hamilton can develop into a better deep-third player, and it’s still crazy what he’s able to do back there at his size, but that’s one discussion to be had in front offices, and you can see why some analysts ding him for this. If you want him up high in two-deep looks, which is where the NFL is headed anyway, I think he’ll be just fine. He needs to be more sudden with his transitions, develop better timing to the ball, and trust what he sees in those open-field situations.
Conclusion: There are a lot of questions about Hamilton’s NFL future. I have two.
Is Hamilton the next evolution of the Isaiah Simmons “defensive weapon” template in that deep-half skills and ungodly open-field speed are now built in? What is that worth to a defense?
Why is Hamilton the best player in this draft class? He’s an unprecedented athlete at one of the NFL’s most important positions. We have simply never seen anybody like him before. That’s why he’s the best player in this draft class to me.
Mel Blount was 6’3″, 205. KYLE HAMILTON IS BIGGER AND TALLER THAN MEL BLOUNT AND HE’S DOING THIS. https://t.co/lJyHM8f8uW
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) April 14, 2022
Some teams will not know what to do with him. Some will see him as a big box safety — I’ve seen comparisons to Kam Chancellor, and with all due respect to Kam Chancellor, that erases the crucial range component of Hamilton’s play. Also, some teams simply don’t value the safety position enough to think of him as a top prospect. You can usually tell which teams think of safeties like that in the modern NFL, because their pass defenses stink.
I hope that Hamilton goes to a team with a head coach and a defensive coordinator who don’t try to limit his potential as one primary type of player or another. Kyle Hamilton is the rarest type of player — a jack-of-all-trades who is also a master at just about everything, and the iffy stuff is fixable. You can build an entire defense around a player like this.
NFL Comparison: Derwin James. When healthy, James has become one of the NFL’s most versatile and productive safeties, and he does it all over the place. Last season, he played 361 snaps in the box, 224 in the slot, 326 at free safety, nine at cornerback, and 41 along the defensive line. James has had some transitive issues as a pure deep-third safety, but as the Chargers run a ton of two-high under head coach Brandon Staley, that concern is minimized by scheme.
Now, take everything I just said about Derwin James, add three inches to his height, and 5-10 pounds to his weight. Now, you have Kyle Hamilton. Again, we’re talking about an unprecedented player.
(Okay — the ultimate upside comparison for Hamilton, and I do this with a lot of trepidation, is the late, great Sean Taylor. Taylor could do things at 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds that just did not physically make sense. Hamilton would have to develop more smoothness in the deep third, but he has every other attribute to make that kind of an impact in the NFL over time).
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